The Title IX Grievance Process, Step by Step

For a complaint of sexual harassment, the Title IX regulation lays out the stages from first report to appeal, who has to be told what at each one, and a handful of fixed numbers. This walkthrough follows those stages in order, using 34 CFR 106.30, 106.44 and 106.45 as the Code of Federal Regulations has printed them since September 29, 2026, and marks the places where elementary and secondary schools follow different rules from colleges.

Which version of the rule this covers

The text now in the CFR is the 2020 framework. The Department of Education restored it on September 29, 2026, after courts vacated the 2024 rule in early 2025, as we covered in The 2024 Title IX Rule Comes Out of the CFR. Everything below comes from the current regulation text.

Two limits on scope. The grievance process in § 106.45 applies to formal complaints of sexual harassment as § 106.30 defines it: an employee conditioning a benefit on unwelcome sexual conduct, unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would find so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies equal access, and sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking as defined in federal law. Other complaints of sex discrimination go through the prompt and equitable procedures a school must adopt under § 106.8(c). And a school’s own policy can add steps, so read this next to yours. It explains the regulation. It is not legal advice.

The stages at a glance

1. A report reaches the Title IX Coordinator.
2. Supportive measures are offered, and an emergency removal or administrative leave is used if the facts call for it.
3. A formal complaint is filed or signed.
4. The parties receive written notice of the allegations.
5. The complaint is dismissed or consolidated, if either applies.
6. The school investigates and sends the parties the evidence and an investigative report.
7. A live hearing is held, or written questions are exchanged.
8. A decision-maker issues a written determination.
9. Either party may appeal.

Informal resolution can be offered at any point after a formal complaint and before the determination. The sections below take each stage in turn.

1. A report reaches the Title IX Coordinator

The first duty starts before anyone files anything. A school with actual knowledge of sexual harassment in its education program or activity must respond promptly in a way that is not deliberately indifferent, meaning a response that is not clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances (§ 106.44(a)). Actual knowledge means notice to the Coordinator or to an official with authority to institute corrective measures. In an elementary or secondary school it also means notice to any employee (§ 106.30(a)). Who counts as an official with authority at a college is the subject of Who Has to Report?

Anyone can make a report to the Coordinator, in person, by mail, by telephone or by email, at any time, using the contact information the school has to publish (§ 106.8(a)). The Coordinator then has to contact the complainant promptly to discuss supportive measures, consider the complainant’s wishes about them, explain that they are available with or without a formal complaint, and explain how to file one (§ 106.44(a)).

2. Supportive measures, emergency removal and administrative leave

Supportive measures are individualized services offered to the complainant or the respondent, before or after a formal complaint or with none at all. The regulation requires them to be non-disciplinary, non-punitive and free of charge, and designed to restore or preserve equal access to the school’s program without unreasonably burdening the other party. Section 106.30 gives examples: counseling, deadline extensions, schedule changes, escort services, mutual no-contact restrictions, changes in work or housing, leaves of absence and increased monitoring of certain areas. The school keeps them confidential as far as it can while still providing them, and the Coordinator is responsible for coordinating their effective implementation. Before the process ends, a school may not impose disciplinary sanctions on a respondent, or take other actions that are not supportive measures (§ 106.45(b)(1)(i)).

The regulation separately preserves two tools. A school may remove a respondent from its program on an emergency basis after an individualized safety and risk analysis finds an immediate threat to someone’s physical health or safety arising from the allegations, and it has to give the respondent notice and an opportunity to challenge the decision immediately after the removal (§ 106.44(c)). A school may also place a non-student employee on administrative leave while the grievance process runs (§ 106.44(d)). Both provisions say they do not change anyone’s rights under Section 504 or the ADA, and the emergency removal provision adds the IDEA.

3. The formal complaint

A formal complaint is a document, filed by the complainant or signed by the Title IX Coordinator, that alleges sexual harassment against a respondent and asks the school to investigate (§ 106.30). At the time of filing, the complainant has to be participating in or trying to participate in the school’s program. A complaint can be filed in person, by mail or by email using the Coordinator’s contact information, and by any other method the school designates. An online portal counts if the submission carries the complainant’s signature or otherwise shows who is filing. When the Coordinator signs a complaint, the Coordinator does not become a party and still has to meet the conflict-of-interest and bias requirement in § 106.45(b)(1)(iii).

4. Notice of allegations

On receiving a formal complaint, the school must send the parties it knows of written notice of its grievance process, including any informal resolution process, and of the allegations. The allegation notice needs enough detail for a party to prepare a response before any initial interview: the identities of the parties if known, the conduct alleged, and the date and location if known. It has to say that the respondent is presumed not responsible until a determination at the end of the process, that each party may have an advisor of their choice who may be an attorney, that each may inspect and review evidence, and what the code of conduct says about knowingly making false statements (§ 106.45(b)(2)(i)). If the investigation widens to allegations the notice did not cover, the parties get a further notice (§ 106.45(b)(2)(ii)).

5. Dismissal and consolidation

Some complaints end at this point. The school must dismiss a formal complaint, as to the conduct in question, if the conduct would not be sexual harassment as defined even if proved, did not occur in its education program or activity, or did not occur against a person in the United States. It may dismiss if the complainant withdraws in writing, the respondent is no longer enrolled or employed, or specific circumstances keep the school from gathering enough evidence to reach a determination (§ 106.45(b)(3)). Either way it sends written notice of the dismissal and the reasons to both parties at the same time. A dismissal does not stop the school from acting under another part of its code of conduct, and a dismissal can be appealed. The school may also consolidate complaints that arise from the same facts or circumstances (§ 106.45(b)(4)).

6. Investigation

The burden of gathering evidence and the burden of proof rest on the school, not on the parties. Within that frame the regulation requires the school to give the parties an equal opportunity to present witnesses, including expert witnesses, and other evidence. Neither party can be restricted from discussing the allegations or gathering evidence. Each may bring the advisor of their choice to any meeting or proceeding, although the school can limit how far advisors take part if the limits apply to both sides. Each party gets written notice of the date, time, location, participants and purpose of every interview, meeting or hearing, with enough time to prepare (§ 106.45(b)(5)(i) through (v)). The school cannot use a party’s treatment records from a physician, psychologist or similar professional without that party’s voluntary written consent, and it cannot use information protected by a legally recognized privilege unless the holder waives it.

Before the investigator finishes the report, both parties get an equal opportunity to inspect and review the evidence directly related to the allegations, including evidence the school does not plan to rely on. They have at least 10 days to respond in writing, and the investigator considers what they send (§ 106.45(b)(5)(vi)). The investigator then writes a report that fairly summarizes the relevant evidence and sends it to the parties and their advisors at least 10 days before a hearing, or before the time of determination if there is no hearing, for review and written response (§ 106.45(b)(5)(vii)).

7. A live hearing or written questions

Here elementary and secondary schools and postsecondary institutions part ways. A postsecondary institution has to hold a live hearing. Each party’s advisor asks the other party and any witnesses relevant questions, including questions that challenge credibility, directly, orally and in real time, and a party never asks personally. At either party’s request the hearing takes place with the parties in separate rooms. The decision-maker rules on relevance before each answer and explains any exclusion, a party without an advisor is given one at no charge, and the institution records the hearing or produces a transcript (§ 106.45(b)(6)(i)).

An elementary or secondary school may hold a hearing but does not have to. With or without one, after sending the investigative report and before reaching a determination, the decision-maker must let each party submit written relevant questions for any party or witness, give each party the answers, and allow limited follow-up questions (§ 106.45(b)(6)(ii)). In both settings, questions and evidence about the complainant’s sexual predisposition or prior sexual behavior are not relevant, except in two narrow situations the regulation spells out. One sentence from the 2020 text is absent from the current regulation: the bar on a decision-maker relying on statements of a party or witness who would not submit to cross-examination. A federal court vacated it in 2021 and the Department did not restore it.

8. The determination

The decision-maker cannot be the Title IX Coordinator or the investigator. The decision-maker issues a written determination applying the standard of evidence the school has chosen, which must be either preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence, applied the same way to complaints against students and against employees, including faculty, and to every formal complaint of sexual harassment (§ 106.45(b)(1)(vii) and (b)(7)(i)).

The written determination has to include the allegations; the procedural steps from receipt of the complaint through the determination; findings of fact; conclusions applying the code of conduct to those facts; a statement of the result on each allegation with the reasons, including any sanctions and whether remedies will go to the complainant; and the procedures and permitted grounds for appeal (§ 106.45(b)(7)(ii)). Both parties receive it at the same time. It becomes final on the date the appeal result is delivered or, if no one appeals, on the date an appeal would no longer be timely. The Coordinator is responsible for carrying out any remedies.

9. Appeal

The school must offer both parties an appeal from a determination and from a dismissal, on three grounds: a procedural irregularity that affected the outcome, new evidence that was not reasonably available earlier and could affect the outcome, and a conflict of interest or bias on the part of the Coordinator, an investigator or a decision-maker that affected the outcome. A school may add grounds if it offers them equally to both parties. The appeal decision-maker cannot be the person who decided the original matter, an investigator or the Coordinator. Each party gets a reasonable, equal chance to submit a written statement, the other party is notified of the appeal, and the school issues a written decision with its reasons to both parties at the same time (§ 106.45(b)(8)).

Informal resolution, if the school offers it

A school may facilitate an informal resolution such as mediation at any time before a determination, but only after a formal complaint has been filed. It has to give the parties written notice of the allegations, the process and its consequences, including the records that will be kept or could be shared. It has to obtain each party’s voluntary written consent. It may not use informal resolution for allegations that an employee sexually harassed a student. Either party can withdraw and return to the formal process at any point before agreeing to a resolution, and a school cannot make waiver of the right to a formal process a condition of enrollment or employment (§ 106.45(b)(9)).

How long does a Title IX investigation take?

The regulation does not set a number of days. It requires every school’s process to include reasonably prompt time frames for concluding the process, including appeals and any informal resolution, and a way to delay the process or extend a time frame for good cause, with written notice to both parties of the delay and the reasons. Good cause can include the absence of a party, an advisor or a witness, concurrent law enforcement activity, or the need for language assistance or disability accommodation (§ 106.45(b)(1)(v)).

The fixed numbers in the section are two 10-day periods, one for the parties’ response to the evidence and one for reviewing the investigative report before a hearing or determination, and the seven-year retention period. Any other number comes from the school’s own procedures, which is why a case record should show the date of each step against them.

What the record has to show

Section 106.45(b)(10) requires a school to keep, for seven years, the records of each sexual harassment investigation, including the determination, any hearing recording or transcript, sanctions and remedies; any appeal and its result; any informal resolution and its result; and all materials used to train Title IX Coordinators, investigators, decision-makers and informal resolution facilitators. The training materials have to be posted on the school’s website, or made available for public inspection on request if it has no website.

A second record is required for every response to a report or formal complaint: the actions taken, including supportive measures, and the school’s documented basis for concluding its response was not deliberately indifferent. If it offered no supportive measures, it has to document why that was not clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances (§ 106.45(b)(10)(ii)).

The steps above also double as a checklist of dates and documents: when the report arrived, when the Coordinator contacted the complainant, each supportive measure and who received it, when each notice went out, the evidence packet and the day the 10 days began, the date the investigative report was sent, who decided the matter and how conflicts were checked, when the determination was delivered, and what happened on appeal. A record that captures each of those as it happens answers the questions a reviewer is most likely to ask. One pieced together from email afterward tends to have gaps, a problem we describe in Why Title IX Teams Outgrow Spreadsheets and Email. And because the rules have changed more than once in recent years, a record built around what happened and when is the safer foundation, as we explained in When the Rules Change, Your Title IX Records Shouldn’t.

Key takeaways

• The regulation sets the order: report, supportive measures, formal complaint, notice of allegations, dismissal or investigation, hearing or written questions, determination, appeal.
• In elementary and secondary schools, notice to any employee is actual knowledge and a hearing is optional, though written questions are not. Postsecondary institutions must hold a live hearing with advisor-conducted questioning.
• The decision-maker cannot be the Coordinator or the investigator, and the appeal decision-maker cannot be any of them.
• There is no overall deadline in the regulation. It requires reasonably prompt time frames in the school’s own procedures, two 10-day review periods, and seven-year record retention.
• The record has to cover the school’s response to every report, not only formal complaints. For the underlying statute and the earlier rules, see Title IX Law: What the Statute Says and Which Rules Apply.

Sources

1. 34 CFR 106.45, Grievance process for formal complaints of sexual harassment (eCFR, current text)
2. 34 CFR 106.44, Recipient’s response to sexual harassment (eCFR, current text)
3. 34 CFR 106.30, Definitions (eCFR, current text)
4. 34 CFR 106.8, Designation of coordinator, dissemination of policy, and adoption of grievance procedures (eCFR, current text)
5. Recodification of Title IX Rules, 34 CFR part 106, RIN 1870-AA26 (final rule, September 29, 2026)

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